Chapter 5 A Toast, To You My Dear

VIVIENNE SNAPPED out of her introspection as her father turned the Mercedes into the car park beneath the Hotel Inter-Continental. It was one of Sydney's newest hotels and it had the unique architectural feature of having incorporated one of the city's historic landmarks in its structure-the old Treasury building. Vivienne liked the atmosphere of a bygone era that had been created within the confines of a very modern hotel, and could not help feeling pleased that they were dining here tonight.

The car wastaken over by attendants. Vivienne and her father took the lift up to the ground floor. They walked along the colonnaded concourse that ran the four sides of a huge open quadrangle. Above it-all three storeys of the Treasury Building-was a sky-lighted roof through which sunlight streamed during the day. A huge urn, resplendant with Australian flora, was the centrepiece of the Cortile. Around it were table settings with comfortable cane armchairs where guests could relax for light snacks or cocktails.

Sir Gabriel Carter did not pause in his step. He led Vivienne around the Cortile to the Treasury Restaurant, a magnificent high-ceilinged room, furnished with all the formal elegance of a Victorian mansion. All the waiters were in tails, the tables graced with the best of white linen and fine china; and the armchairs around them were upholstered in a beautifully patterned tapestry.

Vivienne smiled in appreciation as she was seated with elaborate courtesy by the head waiter.

'Better now?' her father asked, eyeing her sharply from across the table.

'Fine, thank you.'

Champagne was poured into their glasses. Gabriel Carter lifted his in a toast.

'To you, my dear, and may you savour every year ahead of you.'

'Thank you, Father,' she said smoothly. 'I intend to, in my own way.'

He smiled. 'What do you plan to do, now that you've finished your internship at the hospital?'

Vivienne shrugged. 'I'll take on a locum for a while... get some experience of general practice.'

He nodded approvingly.

Vivienne hesitated over telling him the full truth, then decided he might as well know it now. 'I intend to apply for missionary work. that's what I want to do'.

That might be dangerous,' he remarked blandly, aware that any, sign of disapproval from him might act as a spur to firm her decision, simply to defy his wishes.

Vivienne shrugged, but her eyes held his steadily as she replied, 'I want to take care of the people who can't pay for what they need, who don't have anyone to turn to for help and comfort in their pain. I'm sure you understand that, Father.'

'It's a fine ambition, Vivienne,' he said, understanding all too well what she was telling him. She would give what he had failed to give. But there had to be some way around it. Be damned if he would see her sent to some godforsaken hole! He could pull some strings ... maybe even block her application ... but if she found out it would alienate her further. He would have to give it some thought.

The menu was handed to them and conversation was deferred while they made their choices and gave the order.

'Aria has planned a masked ball for New Year's Eve,' Gabriel said in a deliberate change of subject. 'Will you come this year?'

He knew what Vivienne's answer would be, but there was always the outside chance that she might change her mind one day. There were some things he owed her as a father, Vivienne figured, and she kept rigidly to the lines. she had drawn up in her mind. They were very basic ... the provision of a roof over her head and a living allowance until her education was completed. That was what she would have had by birthright if he had married her mother.

Apart from accepting his support until she was capable of supporting herself, Vivienne went out with her father because it was a public acknowledgement of her kinship with him, and she would not be denied that, although nothing he did now could ever make up for the years he had stayed away from her.

But the line stopped at entering the house where his other children had held pride of place all their lives. That was their home ... never hers. And she wanted no part of it.

'I'm sure a masked ball will be a social tourb-de force,' she remarked lightly. 'But it's not my kind of thing, Father.'

'I would welcome you.'

'I'd hate to steal any of Aria's thunder.'

'Aria is currying favour with me at the moment. She'd even give up star-status if it meant a chance that I'd approve her choice of second husband. Plus a generous marriage allowance,' he said with a cynical twist.

'And will you?'

Aria had left her first husband after four months, declaring him impossible to live with. She was four years older than Vivienne and she had resumed her position as head of her father's house. Sir Gabriel had never installed his mistresses in his family home.

He shrugged. 'He wants finance more than he wants Aria, but he's a better bet than the high-class wimp she chose last time. Who knows? I might get some grandchildren out of it.'

Vivienne bridled at his hard cynicism. 'Don't you care that she'll probably get hurt?'

He looked at her with the weariness of past experience. 'It's what she wants, Vivienne. If she doesn't know what she's taking on, it's most likely she doesn't want to know. If I tell her, she'll only think I'm trying to destroy her one chance at happiness.' His eyes twinkled into amused challenge. 'Come... you tell me what I should do. And I'll do it.'

He was serious. It surprised Vivienne. The knowledge that it was possible she held the fate of her half-sister in her hands made her pause to consider the problem more deeply before answering.

'If you gave him the finance he wants, no strings attached, and he still wanted Aria ...' Vivienne began.

Sir Gabriel Carter raised a sceptical eyebrow.

'And if he takes the money and leaves, she'll think I bought him off. And hate me for it.' He looked at Vivienne with curious speculation. 'Do you want Aria to hate me?'

'No.'

Her reply was so spontaneous that Gabriel could not doubt its sincerity. He was pleased that her hatred did not extend that far. 'What you suggest ... I would do that for you, Vivienne, because you have the strength of character to turn away from such a man. Aria, on the other hand, does not see beyond her emotional desires of the moment.'

'I don't need you to prove a suitor's sincerity to me, Father. I have my own ways and means,' Vivienne informed him, with a trace of her own bitterly learnt cynicism.

He nodded at the confirmation of her character and felt a fierce satisfaction. His son was a dilettante, his other daughter a superficial socialite: but Vivienne was of the same fibre as himself and one day he would hand his empire over to her. He hoped he would be able to see what she made of it.

'As for Aria,' she said slowly, 'I don't know enough of her to make a fair judgement. I leave it to you. No doubt you have her best interests at heart.'

He ignored the subtle taunt. One day she might understand. When she was older ... if he lived long enough ... if his heart didn't give out before he could close the gap between them. He would have to take better care of himself. Do what the doctor told him.

'There are no best interests where Aria is concerned,' he said tiredly. 'All I can do is keep the peace. And leave the door open for her.'

He paused, wondering if he could plant a receptive seed in Vivienne's mind that might bear fruit some time in the future. He decided it was worth a try. 'My door is always open to you, Vivienne, should you ever care to step over the threshold you've drawn.'

Her eyes glittered at him. 'I didn't draw it, Father.'

'No. But the offer has been there for you to take ... when you want to,' he reminded her quietly.